Monday, November 07, 2016

Theatrics of the absurd

by Tom Sullivan

Little Lord Flauntleroy lounges uneasily in his gilded jet and glowers out the window at the larger Air Force One. The New York Times this morning profiles Donald Trump at the end of his erratic campaign as needy and unwilling to be alone with his thoughts. He keeps aides up with him so he has someone to talk to and struggles "to suppress his bottomless need for attention." The profile continues:

On the surface, there is the semblance of stability that is robbing Hillary Clinton of her most potent weapon: Mr. Trump’s self-sabotaging eruptions, which have repeatedly undermined his candidacy. Underneath that veneer, turbulence still reigns, making it difficult for him to overcome all of the obstacles blocking his path to the White House.

The contrasts pervade his campaign. Aides to Mr. Trump have finally wrested away the Twitter account that he used to colorfully — and often counterproductively — savage his rivals. But offline, Mr. Trump still privately muses about all the ways he will punish his enemies after Election Day, including a threat to fund a “super PAC” with vengeance as its core mission.

The Republican candidate traveled in his gilded jet on Sunday to Minnesota (a state no Republican has won since 1972). Trump arrived at a hanger to the soundtrack from "Air Force One" to warn of the "disaster taking place in Minnesota" because the state's Samaritans had welcomed Somali immigrants and refugees. To Trump's disappointment, FBI Director James B. Comey announced earlier that, well, never mind, there wasn't anything in the Hillary Clinton emails the agency had discovered in a separate investigation:

FBI Director James Comey told lawmakers Sunday the agency hasn't changed its opinion that Hillary Clinton should not face criminal charges after a review of new emails.

"Based on our review, we have not changed our conclusions that we expressed in July," Comey wrote in the new letter to congressional committee chairmen.

In Sterling Heights, Michigan, Trump responded:

"You can't review 650,000 new emails in eight days. You can't do it, folks," Trump said, adding, "Hillary Clinton is guilty. She knows it, the FBI knows it, the people know it, and now it's up to the American people to deliver justice at the ballot box on November 8."

They know she's guilty of something. Positive. They're just not sure of what. But the shit enemies fling at Hillary Clinton has piled up for years. They just know if they keep digging in it, someday they will find a pony. Trump wants to jail her whether they do or not.

In an op-ed in the New York Times by Nikolai Tolstoy, the chancellor of the International Monarchist League, has a recommendation for Americans who share Trump's authoritarian impulses. He argues for the advantages of monarchy:

The French politician of the early 20th century Georges Clemenceau once remarked, “there are two things in the world for which I have never seen any use: the prostate gland and the president of the republic.” As they contemplate the choice before them this week, many Americans may share something of that sentiment. There is an alternative.

Why this man isn't already on Donald Trump's campaign team is beyond me.